Miami Zoo recently opened Amazing Animals: Built to Survive, an exhibit that explores animals and plants as machines built for survival, complete with pumps, pipes, insulation, motors, springs, and intelligence gathering devices. Using real specimens, life-like models, amazing video footage, and interactive displays, the exhibition investi­gates how cheetahs run so fast; how the bite force of an extinct fish made it a top predator; how a Venus fly trap detects its next meal; and how many other organisms function as machines in order to survive, move, and discover.

Amazing Animals is open daily at Dr. Wilde’s World from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. General zoo admission is $19.95 per adult and $15.95 per child (3 -12), plus tax. Entry into Amazing Animals is included with zoo admission. Children under 2 and parking are free. Zoo weekday hours are 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. (ticket booths close at 3:30 p.m.) and 9:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. on weekends (ticket booths close at 4 p.m.) For more information, please visit www.zoomiami.org or call (305) 251-0400.